Det faktum at Franz Schubert lot være å fullføre en av sine symfonier har ført til mye moro blant de musikalsk anlagte. Et viktig bidrag til denne ærverdige tradisjonen er hentet fra alltid leseverdige Musical Perceptions:
The President of a large California health insurance company was also the
chairman of the board of his community's symphony orchestra. He could not attend
one of the concerts and gave his tickets to the company's director of healthcare
cost containment. The next morning he asked the director how he enjoyed the
performance. Instead of the usual polite remarks, the director handed him a
memorandum which went like this:
"The undersigned submits the following comments and recommendations
relative to the performance of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony by the Civic
Orchestra as observed under actual working conditions:
A. The attendance of the orchestra conductor is unnecessary for public
performances. The orchestra has obviously practiced and has the prior
authorization from the conductor to play the symphony at a predetermined level
of quality. Considerable money could be saved by merely having the conductor
critique the orchestra's performance during a retrospective peer review meeting.
B. For considerable periods, the four oboe players had nothing to do. Their
numbers should be reduced and their work spread over the whole orchestra, thus
eliminating peaks and valleys of activity.
C. All twelve violins were playing identical notes with identical notes with
identical motions. This is unnecessary duplication; the staff of this section
should be drastically cut with consequent savings. If larger volume of sound is
required, this could be obtained through electronic amplification, which has
reached very high levels of reproductive quality.
D. Much effort was expended in playing 16th notes. This seems an excessive
refinement as most of the listeners (and the violists!) are unable to
distinguish such rapid playing. It is recommended that all notes be rounded
down to the nearest 8th. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees
and lower grade operators with no loss of quality.
E. No useful purpose would appear to be served by repeating with horns the
same passage that has already been handled by the strings. If all such
redundant passages were eliminated, as determined by a utilization review
committee, the concert should have been reduced from two hours to twenty
minutes, with still greater savings in salaries and overhead. In fact, if
Schubert had attended to these matters on a cost containment basis, he probably
would have been able to finish his symphony!"
Leave a comment